Windows Security Center service cannot start
I am running Windows 7 Ultimate. I have never had any issues with viruses or spyware on this machine. I have MSE installed and active. I keep getting a notification in the Action Center that the "Windows Security Center service is turned off". When I click the button to turn it on, nothing happens. I located the Security Center service and when I try to start it, it says "Windows could not start the Security Center service on Local Computer", and below that "Error5: Access Denied". The service is running under the 'Local Service' user, I tried changing it to Local System Account, but got a different error, so I assume Local Service is correct. What could be causing this? I am logged in as a domain admin, and I have full control.
December 10th, 2009 8:30pm

type in the search box : services.msc and press enter(it must be performed in theadministrator account or run the Services.msc as admin)then look for safety center something like that and double click on it and look if its set to : start automatically(delayed) if not then choose this option and press start right below that option..hope this helps,RR
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December 10th, 2009 11:38pm

Automatic (delayed start) was already and still is selected. No difference.
December 10th, 2009 11:52pm

Hi, I am have the same exact problem. Did you ever resolve it?? TY! Joe
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January 28th, 2010 9:57pm

Nope, just been ignoring it. Same issue still exists.
February 1st, 2010 5:17pm

Have you tried scanning your system of Spyware irregardless of your current solution finding any spyware? Try using Super Anti-Spyware or Malwarebytes . It is good practice to run multiple scans from multiple solutions.
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February 3rd, 2010 12:22am

Hello Karl,Have you checked the "Dependencies" tab?You should have:-Remote Procedure Call (RPC) - DCOM Server Process Launcher - RPC Endpoint Mapper-Windows Management Instrumentation - Remote Procedure Call (RPC) - DCOM Server Process Launcher - RPC Endpoint MapperCheck to see if you have these services started as well.The path to the executable is:C:\Windows\System32\svchost.exe -k LocalServiceNetworkRestrictedAnd yes it runs under Local Service.Aside from that I'll watch for a fix for you.Regards,williamdinbc
February 3rd, 2010 11:12pm

William - Those dependencies are are there, are the services are started. Thanks. Tim - As much as I would like to think this is just a simple virus or malware issue, its not. My PC is completely clean of anything like that.
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February 4th, 2010 5:21pm

If you havent figured it out yet. Set it to auto, not delayed start.
May 9th, 2010 3:30am

Well, my hard drive crashed last month, and since rebuilding the PC this issue no longer exists. I just checked the service, and it is still set to 'delayed start', however I don't get the error like before. So perhaps an OS reinstall was in order? Can't verify that setting it to auto is the fix since I no longer experience the issue.
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May 10th, 2010 4:24pm

Thanks for the help. I had same problem when I picked up malware. After cleaning it wouldn't start. I followed this procedure and it was disabled. I changed to delayed start and it worked when I turned it on. TY TY TY
July 7th, 2010 7:03am

Thanks it works . People should follow this advice. Click start & type Services.msc then hit enter. Right click on the security center , click properties & choose automatic & start. Good luck ever body and good work Evader. Feed back is always helpful. SAL
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September 19th, 2010 2:37am

Thanks it works . People should follow this advice. Click start & type Services.msc then hit enter. Right click on the security center , click properties & choose automatic & start. Good luck ever body and good work Evader. Feed back is always helpful. SAL i try to do this but i don't find security center in the services...pls help
October 29th, 2010 8:00pm

I've had this problem for over a week now and have tried all of the above but still unable to start security center. I sometimes get error 1079. And answer to someone above I believe it should be set to auto delayed to allow the dependencies to start first. Shame I can't do it myself.
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November 2nd, 2010 8:28pm

I have tried all of these, and I really hesitate to wipe and reload, everything else is working fine. I even ran sfcscannow in attempts to repair the files/dependencies but still the red x. Again, no virus (using MSE and SAS) and system is clean and has been. Have a feeling it is some registry entry or maybe a "microsoft fix-it" could rectify this problem without having to invest in reloading... still open to suggestions...eph61820
November 21st, 2010 5:05pm

I got frustrated with again yesterday, and did more digging and more people are frustrated by this than before... which means there are more solutions and suggestsions. One that WORKED for me FINALLY was this one: http://windowsxp.mvps.org/wscsvcfix.htm I realize that the error code may not be the same, the os may not be the same, but all I know is that I ran this, and no more red x notification with Win 7 Ultmate Security Center notice...eph61820
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November 22nd, 2010 1:39pm

type in the search box : services.msc and press enter (it must be performed in the administrator account or run the Services.msc as admin) then look for safety center something like that and double click on it and look if its set to : start automatically(delayed) if not then choose this option and press start right below that option.. hope this helps, RR Only thing you left out is.. one you go to run and type in services.mrs and press enter. i didn't see the setting to do this.. till I looked at the bottom and saw two tabs. (Extended and Standard) click on the standard tab and scroll down till u see Security Center.. not safety center..lol. and double click on that and set it to automatic with no delay, then hit the start button right under where u set to automatic. .. Thanks for the guidance to solving my problem! Hope this with help others like it helped me!
December 21st, 2010 6:27am

man omfg thx alot about that i searched all morning about my trouble of not getting the security center on how u said it was disabled from the services thx again :D
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December 25th, 2010 12:24pm

I had the same problem and all my virus trojan scans came out clean....Microsoft Security Essentials wouldn't start and by chance I installed avg which found the cause of my problem a virus/trojan called rundll.exe it quarantined it and everything is perfect ( It would even remove all my restore points) Hope this helps :-)
December 29th, 2010 12:34am

Even i have the same problem... issue I ve been facing is a big story.... I had connected my external HDD to my laptop and unaware of the presence of DANGEROUS trojan..which eventually got into my laptop and was stored in my temp folder with DHWPCXXX name.. I am running symantec antivirus and it used to prompt every now and then about the virus...it used to say quarantined and then i used to delete it. However, the virus keeps coming back and some times i used to get around 300 notifications of all DHWPCXXXX trojans from my temp folder. After going through lots of microsoft forums , i have tried the Malware bytes, Super anti malware , super spyware...cleaned the registries and tried all the possible options . NO LUCK...so as per on of the solutions giving online..i tried to delete all the DHWPCXXXX files in my TEMP folder manually. Then started my actual problem.... :( MY WINDOWS SECURITY SERVICE CENTER WILL NOT STARTUP AUTOMATICALLY AND IS GETTING DISABLED BY ITSELF... I TRIED TO RESET TO AUTOMATIC SOME MILLION TIMES BUT IT GETS DISABLED AUTOMATICALLY... SOME THING IS CONTROLLING THE SECURITY ACCOUNT AND DISABLING THE SERVICE. Please some one from here, who had similar problem help me out....do we have a fix for this any solution which i can try out!!!! This Virus has disabled my: Windows Update Service System Restore Windows Security Service and I am not even sure how many services are disabled by this annoying trojan. PLEASE FIX THIS.. thanks a million!!
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January 24th, 2011 1:00pm

Some one Please Help me ..is there no other fix to this than to FORMAT.....
February 2nd, 2011 12:22pm

Hey, I am having the same problem. I noticed that the dependencies that you indicated here are not available in the dependencies tab. The question is how can I add these dependencies here? And the path to the executable is also a little bit different C:\Windows\System32\svchost.exe -k netsvcs how can I change this one?
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February 3rd, 2011 5:47am

Hey, I am having the same problem. I noticed that the dependencies that you indicated here are not available in the dependencies tab. The question is how can I add these dependencies here? And the path to the executable is also a little bit different C:\Windows\System32\svchost.exe -k netsvcs how can I change this one? I dont think they have a FIX for this!!!! Damn you Virus... I am planning to Format my Machine...:(
February 4th, 2011 8:17am

I now have the same problem. "Windows Security Center Service can't be started". Tried all the options - Automatic, Automtic (delay) and Manual options. I get an error 1084. If there is a fix, I will really appreciate it.
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February 22nd, 2011 10:43am

i had this same problem. its a virus. download avast antivirus free edition and do a boot scan. it will find the virus. then you have to type Services.msc into the start menu, find the security center, turn it on to automatic. then turn on windows security essentials if you have that. avast is the only virus program that was able to detect it and get rid of it. hope this helps :)
February 26th, 2011 12:07am

THANKS IT WORKS AND ITS SIMPLE THANK YOU VERY MUCH.
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March 3rd, 2011 1:10am

type Services.msc in the search box, check if security centre account is disabled right click security centre account, click properties, click automatic(delayed start). GOOD LUCK
March 3rd, 2011 1:17am

well im running windows 7 ultimate and there is no "security center" or any variant even in the services.msc is it different, or has it been somehow removed. i am currently getting pop ups via a fake antivirus (unsure which virus this is) scans yield nothing, malwarebytes found a reg key that was infected cleaned it problem went away for approx 24 hrs. then randomly came back this time nothing found... security center will not enable HELP!
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March 27th, 2011 6:54pm

Your information worked and was helpful in getting rid of the "fix" message in the Windows Action Center. Thank you.
March 31st, 2011 10:18am

I wanted to say that I did this and it finally took that annoying message away...thanks for the advice!
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April 2nd, 2011 10:09pm

I use Microsoft Security Essentials and I have not seen any issues. I recommend using it as its free with no expiry. If there is a problem, I am here and I can help. My MVP is for the Windows Desktop Experience, i.e. Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 IT Remote Assistance is available for a fee. I am best with C++ and I am learning C# using Visual Studio 2010 Developer | Windows IT | Chess | Economics | Hardcore Games | Vegan Advocate | PC Reviews
April 3rd, 2011 12:59am

I tried this but when it's about to start I get an error mesaage claiming that it did start but then shutted down again.. what to do?
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April 25th, 2011 3:06am

Go to my IT site and look at the security area of my forum My MVP is for the Windows Desktop Experience, i.e. Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 IT Remote Assistance is available for a fee. I am best with C++ and I am learning C# using Visual Studio 2010 Developer | Windows IT | Chess | Economics | Hardcore Games | Vegan Advocate | PC Reviews
April 25th, 2011 3:10am

Hi Vegan, Can you pls help me with this? I am having the same problem as above. Cant run my window security... I look for for site and cant find the security area...i cant find info i needed. I am too noob on these. Pls advice.
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June 5th, 2011 9:20pm

Its on the bottom of the home page My MVP is for the Windows Desktop Experience, i.e. Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 IT Remote Assistance is available for a fee. I am best with C++ and I am learning C# using Visual Studio 2010 Developer | Windows IT | Chess | Economics | Hardcore Games | Vegan Advocate | PC Reviews
June 6th, 2011 1:14am

I check the security site, which should be helpful to me? "Go to my IT site and look at the security area of my forum" I just install avast to clean my com, but seems avast only block the pop up (virus/trojan), i dont think avast remove it even i run full scan the virus detection is 0. I also went http://security.symantec.com/sscv6/WelcomePage.asp as advice in the security forum but whenever i wanted to run online full scan my window explorer have an error icon shown at the bottom of the explorer (!) error of page. I still cant start my WSS. HELP~~~
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June 6th, 2011 3:49am

See if MSE will install, if it does run it See the IT home page for the link I plan a new security soon, once I have more tools developed My MVP is for the Windows Desktop Experience, i.e. Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 IT Remote Assistance is available for a fee. I am best with C++ and I am learning C# using Visual Studio 2010 Developer | Windows IT | Chess | Economics | Hardcore Games | Vegan Advocate | PC Reviews
June 6th, 2011 3:59am

Btw, if my MSE cant run i can reinstall?
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June 6th, 2011 4:07am

i go uninstall my MSE and reinstall again k.
June 6th, 2011 4:16am

it does not work. my mse cannot run at all now. >_< any one , pls help me to activate back my Window Security Service and Microsoft Security Essential. I cant stop the pop-up. whateva tabs i click it kept redirecting me to other pages
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June 6th, 2011 4:37am

Looks like too much damage from malware Backup what you can and format your disk and install Windows fresh My MVP is for the Windows Desktop Experience, i.e. Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 IT Remote Assistance is available for a fee. I am best with C++ and I am learning C# using Visual Studio 2010 Developer | Windows IT | Chess | Economics | Hardcore Games | Vegan Advocate | PC Reviews
June 6th, 2011 4:47am

ya, system restore also being disable...i dont know what i can do now...damm sad
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June 6th, 2011 5:49am

i am also having the same problem. In my case, when i restart the PC (windows 7 ent.) security center service gets disabled and if i start manually, its gets stopped and my antivirus FCS is also not running. then i need to stop the run.dll process on the task manger and i have start the security center service and FCS. has any one got the solution for this?
June 20th, 2011 7:50am

Well i have the same problem, i fixed it with the solution to go to Services.msc it worked first time. Now my MSC starts and it closes at the moment he is shown on screen i reinstalled it and ran it from SAFE MODE(when your PC starts tap F8 and chose Safe Mode) i put my PC on scan and it found 7 trojans, Malwarebyts Anti-Malware found same number of malwares and i cleaned my PC so now i'm going restart my PC tap F8 while PC is booting and go to Repair Computer, then Startup Repair and see the results ;) I'm using Windows 7 and i have problem starting Services.msc when im in Extended Bar: " One or more ActiveX controls could not be displayed because either: 1)Your current security settings prohibit running ActiveX controls on this page OR 2)You have blocked a publisher of one of the controls. As the result, the page might not display correctly" EDIT: Whoala, it worked :) and thank to my skill an user Progint and his link(http://windowsxp.mvps.org/wscsvcfix.htm) It worked..USE SAFE MODE! Wish you luck ;)
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June 29th, 2011 1:33am

I had the same exact problem with the Security Center automatic disabling issue on my XP Home Premium SP3 Dell tower. I too ran complete Malwarebytes and SuperAntispyware scans and cleaned everything found BUT the problem persisted. ALAS the fix!!! After 2 days of Googling and trying HijackThis and SpyBot here is what worked for me... You need to first download and install Microsoft Security Essentials and then download the latest MSE updates file separately becauase the virus does NOT allow the updates to MSE to be applied otherwise. In fact, this driver virus will NOT even allow MSE to start!! Once you have the updates applied reboot into Safe Mode and log into the Administrator account (God Mode!!). Then run an MSE scan and it will find and clean-up the bad drivers. The reason all the other tools do NOT work is because the virus is disguised as a Microsoft driver which gets loaded on boot-up BUT MSE is able to detect and clean that!! Once clean in Safe Mode reboot into normal mode and keep running MSE scans until you get a clean scan. Problem solved!!! ALAS Sir Malmare!!! You fought valiantly but revenge is SWEET!!! HappyFacePCs.comRegards, Donald V Paquette CEO www.HappyFacePCs.com
July 18th, 2011 7:58am

I have tried many different solutions - and depending on what is affecting the WSC, depends on the fix. For instance, a recent WSC corruption fix was to make sure that Security Center, WMI (under services) both were LOGON with LOCAL SYSTEM ACCOUNT and ALLOW.... This is what fixed it for me after 2 weeks of trying everything...Respectfully Yours, Derek R. Iannelli-Smith IT Strategist, A+, Network +, Security+
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July 19th, 2011 2:00pm

First, turn on your computer and login as administrator, go to Run command and type "services.msc", look for "Security Center" and double click on it, on startup type choose "Automatic" and on Service status click "start", restart your computer and your Windows Security Center will be enabled again. Or if you want more ways to fix this problem visit this link: http://www.techyv.com/questions/how-fix-disabled-security-center-windows-xp
July 22nd, 2011 4:40pm

Tried to run it... Got an error saying "An error occurred during Phase 10" Clicked ok, followed by which got another error saying "An error occured during Phase 2 - 2147024891... Clicked of again and got another error saying "An error occured during Phase 3 - 2147024891... clicked ok and got another error saying "Some errors were encountered while fixing the security service center" Please advise !!!
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August 24th, 2011 9:29am

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